The Spanish government has asked the Vatican for help transforming
the Valle de los Caidos monument holding the remains of dictator
Francisco Franco into a place of reconciliation, a Vatican spokesman
said on Saturday.
Ministers made the request during the visit of Pope
Benedict to Spain as part of a Roman Catholic World Youth Day which has
seen hundreds of thousands of young people travel to Madrid from around
the world to take part in religious festivities.
A government-appointed commission is due to make proposals in
November on the future of Franco’s burial place in a mountain range an
hour’s drive northwest of Madrid, dominated by a 150-metre-high crucifix
and a focus for the extreme right.
The monument, known as the Valley of
the Fallen, is dominated by a large basilica and is also home to an
order of Benedictine monks. It has long been a source of controversy.
Spain’s Catholic Church, which had close links with Franco during his
36-year dictatorship, has clashed with the Socialist government of
Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero over gay marriage, abortion
and the teaching of religion in state schools.
The future of the monument was discussed at a meeting on Friday
between Minister for the Presidency Ramon Jauregui, Foreign Affairs
Minister Trinidad Jimenez, Secretary of State for the Vatican Tarcisio
Bertone and the Papal Ambassador to Spain Monseigneur Renzo Fratini.
Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said the Spanish government’s
request was listened to by the Holy See, but no decision has been made.
“The proposals were listened to attentively but there was no decision
or stance taken on the part of the Vatican. These are matters which
require more in-depth discussion,” Lombardi told journalists at a
briefing.
The government commission is one of several to have grappled with how
to make the Valle de los Caidos acceptable to all Spaniards since Spain
returned to democracy in 1978.
One of its tasks will be to allow
relatives to remove the remains of some 12,000 soldiers from the losing
Republican side in the war, who were buried alongside Franco supporters
at the valley without families’ knowledge or permission.
On Friday, the second-day of his four-day trip to Madrid, Benedict
greeted groups of young nuns and unversity professors at the San Lorenzo
monastery in El Escorial, a town nestling in the shadow of the Valle de
los Caidos.
A day-trip to include both locations is one of the top
attractions for tourists visiting Madrid.